It started with a simple question.

How’s the water?

A few years ago, we started noticing something.

People were carrying a lot.
Not always in obvious ways—but it was there.

Busy lives. Surface conversations.
A quiet sense that something important was being missed.

So we created a simple card game—How’s The Water?—
to give people a way back into real conversation.

And then we watched what happened.

In living rooms. Locker rooms. Around kitchen tables.
With friends, teams, and complete strangers.

People opened up.
Something shifted in the room.

And we couldn’t unsee it.

So we asked a bigger question.

What if the space itself was designed for that?

Not just a game.
Not just an event.

But a place.

So we built one.

Soulbound House is a small, candlelit space in Ottawa’s Glebe.

Part tea house.
Part gathering place.
Part quiet rebellion against how disconnected things have become.

Phones are set aside.
Tea is poured.
And people share something real.

Some nights, it’s stories.
Some nights, it’s conversation.
Some nights, it’s just being in the same room, without needing anything more.

What’s happening here

What began as an experiment is becoming something else.

A place people return to.
A place where conversations go deeper, more quickly.
A place where strangers don’t stay strangers for long.

It’s not loud.
It doesn’t try to be everything.

But it’s real—and that’s enough.

Where this is going

Soulbound House is the first space. It won’t be the last.

We’re building a network of small, soulful spaces—
tucked into neighbourhoods, designed for presence, conversation, and connection.

Places you can walk into anywhere in the world and feel something familiar.

Alongside the spaces, we create simple objects—games, books, and tools—
that carry that same spirit into everyday life.

Because when the environment is right,
people don’t need much help to connect.

The people behind it

Soulbound began as a collaboration between people drawn to a simple idea:

That meaningful connection isn’t complicated—
it just needs the right conditions.

Along the way, many have helped shape what this is becoming—
including early collaborators and contributors who helped bring the first version of this idea to life.

About Scott

I’m Scott Annan — a parent, a former backcountry guide, and an entrepreneur who’s spent the last 20 years building things and bringing people together.

I study Zen Buddhism. I fly airplanes.
And these days, I spend a lot of time thinking about rooms—
what they feel like, and what becomes possible inside them.

Soulbound House is the most meaningful work I’ve ever done.